Moulton Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children develop close attachments with staff in this bright and cosy pre-school. Staff are nurturing and supportive and help children to feel safe and emotionally secure. They take time to find out personal information about children when they first start, helping them to settle effortlessly. Staff support children to build on what they already know and can do and have high expectations for their progress. For example, children confidently recall aspects of previous learning, such as remembering how to use scissors correctly when cutting papers for their rainbow fish collages. Staff give an abundance of praise when children persevere at challenges. Children beam with pride and are developing positive attitudes to learning.

Children relish their time outside and demonstrate good physical dexterity as they kick balls and practise scoring goals. Children enjoy exploring the secure outdoor area and laugh infectiously with their friends as they race to catch the bubbles before they pop. Staff interactions with children are carefully considered. They give clear and consistent behavioural messages and model good manners and expected behaviours exceptionally well. They ask thought-provoking questions, extending the children's understanding and allowing sufficient time for children to respond. Children form close friendships, become deeply engrossed in their play and are thoughtful and caring towards their friends.

What does the early years setting do well and what does it need to do better?

• Leaders are committed to providing a high standard of care and education for children in the local community. Parents speak highly about the pre-school and comment on the progress their children have made. Partnership working is a strength of the pre-school. The well-established links with various external professionals help to ensure that all children, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, receive the relevant support and intervention to help them make good progress. Funding allocated to these children is used to implement specific and personalised support.
• Children access a broad curriculum that helps to ensure they embed skills across all areas of learning. Staff follow children's interests and provide plenty of opportunities for children to develop their small-muscle skills in readiness for future writing. Children benefit from good links with the local primary school and are well supported through visits and discussions for their move on to school.
• Hygiene practices are effective as staff teach children to become increasingly independent in managing their personal needs. Overall, staff support children to learn about healthy lifestyles. They have a vegetable patch in the garden, and children choose their own snacks from a selection of fruits and crumpets. Children remember what they have learned and know that 'when it is hot, we need to drink a lot'. However, healthy choices are not promoted consistently, as some of the children bring bottles of juice into the setting, which are not replaced with water. This means leaders do not embed healthy eating habits and good oral health consistently throughout the setting.
• Staff place a strong emphasis on supporting children's communication and language skills in the knowledge that these underpin all other areas of learning. Staff read with enthusiasm, and children delight in the interactive way that story times are delivered. Children are supported to pronounce words correctly and learn new words, such as 'glimmering' and 'scales', to extend their vocabulary.
• Staff teach children to be kind and considerate of others as they become active members of the local community. Children eagerly await their visits to the local care home to sing songs and read stories with the residents. This intergenerational learning helps children to develop confidence and a growing respect for different people. However, opportunities for children to learn about cultures, faiths and traditions outside their own community have not yet been fully developed. This means they do not yet have an understanding of the diversity in modern Britain.
• The leadership and management of this pre-school are good. Self-evaluation is reflective and accurately identifies areas for improvement. Leaders place a strong emphasis on well-being and targeted training and recognise that this has a big impact on children's learning and development. Staff comment that the setting 'is like one big family' and that they feel well supported in their roles.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen the teaching of healthy eating habits and good oral health to ensure the importance of good dental hygiene is embedded across the setting
• enrich opportunities for children to learn about cultures and traditions outside their own community so they learn to appreciate the diversity in modern Britain.